"So you're telling me you're not just dreaming about this girl, but seeing her now when you're awake," says Marsden.
"Yes. So is this it," says Nick. "Am I certifiable now? Crazier than a proverbial shit-house rat?"
"No, Nick," says Marsden. "You're having anxiety episodes and your dreams are not allowing you to sleep well; so, I think your resulting fatigue is causing your dream-based hallucinations. I agree with the emergency room doctors and I'm recommending you get started on daily low-dose Prozac, plus a milligram of Ativan a maximum of three times a day. I think you'll find you'll just feel better as we get these dreams of yours worked out over a few more sessions. When you start getting a handle on your head, so to speak; and you will pretty quickly, I think—we can decide then if you should stick with the meds or not, OK?"
Nick had to tell Emily last night after dinner that he shrieked aloud because he was over-tired and concerned about how his episode at work might affect his tenure status. His wife of course knew he had lied. So given how he feels he has continued to deteriorate, Nick is relieved instead of resistant to hear Marsden's suggestion of medication and therapy together.
He nods and thinks for a moment how he trusts this man, if only because "the good doctor," as he has come to call Marsden, neither patronizes nor unnecessarily alarms him. Instead, he calmly explains to Nick how, based on his dreams of the girl and due to everyday stress and fatigue, he has simply been hallucinating.
Marsden has brought home to him in each session so far, how he has created the illusion of the girl "haunting" him, in a self-fulfilling feedback loop, a self-manifesting downward spiral of fear and fatigue breeding yet more fatigue and fear. Marsden was really showing him now, how all he had to do to escape his own nightmare was to simply change his mind, one day at a time, with a little sedative and antidepressant combo to help him along.
Given his hallucination and panic attack at Emerson two days ago and in view of last night, when he would have sworn on Emily and Alex's lives that he had again seen the girl from his dreams, Nick believed until beginning his sessions with Marsden that he was truly losing control.
Now all his sessions with Marsden seem to be culminating in a kind of epiphany—he truly believes he can extract himself from what his own fatigue and resulting irrationality have obviously created. Ghosts and dreams live only in the imagination. So Nick's visions are of the same realm. As Marsden has shown him, he has only to think differently to be free.
Nick cannot find the words to thank him. He begins to choke up as he tries to speak. Marsden leans forward in his chair and lays a gentle-but-firm hand on Nick's shoulder.
"Nick, we'll see you next week, OK? Go home and spend some time with your family. I think we've really turned the corner today. I'm happy for you." Taking Marsden's right hand in both of his, Nick takes a deep breath, says thank you and means it, then heads for the door and the parking lot. He can't wait to see Emily and Alex.
